Love at First Cruel Laugh
by awesomeshadow773
Summary: Zim catches some sort of fuzzies in his organs. Gaz knows what's up with him. Dib thinks he's up to some sort of devious plan as usual. And the fire started with Gazlene's laugh. A ZAGR realization.
1. Chapter 1 - Cafeteria Feud

**A/N: Decided to try to write my first Invader Zim fic. I've been in a big Invader Zim mood. So why not some ZAGR? **

The foul Skool cafeteria is once again filled with the children eating their questionably edible human cafeteria food. Unless they were affected by the gruesome side effects from the food, the children were almost always never bothered with consuming their Skool lunches every Skool day. This was all true except for that one kid with the green skin condition.

Or, more accurately, for the Irken Zim.

Due to still not finding complete immunity to human food, he was still caught in an endless fit of poking at the Skool lunch to seem like he was an actual human eating the food like the rest of the filthy human worm babies.

That's all Zim was doing for now. Trying to hide his identity so he could soon take over Earth for his so called superior race that unbeknownst to him could care less about him. A conquest that has been dragging on for quite a while now.

A real long while.

Has the Irken warmed up to Earth after all this time?

Zim continued poking at his Skool lunch. He stuck out his tongue in disgust. He gagged at the smell and appearance.

Eh. Possibly.

"How can these stinking humans continue to eat this filth?" Zim said to himself in horror.

Nothing is really stopping him from taking over Earth. Just the fact that he is observing the human lifestyle to find their weaknesses. For weakness or for his own interest? His intentions on this planet and attempts at taking over this planet are still as questionable as ever.

From one table over, Dib suspiciously eyes Zim as he pokes at his food. He became more alert to the Irken's comment of the Skool lunch.

"Look at him, Gaz. Being all alien and stuff. There's no doubt he's hiding his plan to conquer Earth up his sleeve. I just know it." Dib says to his unresponsive sister Gaz who is playing her Game Slave 5.

Right. The other thing stalling Zim's Earth conquest. His rivalry with Dib.

Dib, an aspiring paranormal investigator who wants to expose all of the real paranormal creatures to the world. This will be achieved starting with Zim as evidence of aliens being real.

Zim sees Dib as a real threat to his mission of conquering Earth, so one of his first plans is to remove him from the equation to do so.

Countless times of Dib trying to save Earth from Zim and trying to expose Zim to humans.

Countless times of Zim stalling to take over Earth and trying to stop Dib's schemes.

None the better. None the more successful at their tasks.

It's an endless cycle.

Unless there was a truce?

Dib continued talking to an unamused Gaz, "everybody needs to know the truth about Zim! It's for the safety of Earth!"

Unlikely.

Gaz clenched her teeth. She easily became irritated. "He doesn't even have sleeves to hide anything. How many times do I have to tell you, Dib? Zim hasn't come close to taking over Earth for as long as he's been here and probably will never be a real threat to us. So shut up and let me play in peace before I punch you into oblivion."

Dib looked at her with a disturbed face, knowing she could do just that, but proceeded with caution. "The future is uncertain, Gaz. He could surprise us. So I have to stop him in some way! A start to stopping him is exposing him! He can't handle our food right? Let's throw our food at him so he has to expose himself from his disguise!"

Gaz opened an eye, still irritated. "Exactly. Uncertain. So there's a huge chance he won't because of how incompetent he is. He's not a threat."

Dib suspiciously eyed her. "He got you to say that didn't he?"

Zim curiously looked up from poking his food to see the sibling feud.

Gaz growled. "I don't care about what any of you say. Now be quiet. You're interrupting me." She forcibly shoved him away, leaving a huge gap between them at their lunch table.

Looking at their interaction and offended face from Dib, Zim couldn't help but chuckle. Zim always somehow felt interested in the Gaz-human's aura of power whenever they got to interact. It was always a treat when she messed with his nemesis. No other human has really gotten his attention like this. They were all pathetic.

She was still a human nonetheless. A surprisingly and scarily competent horrible human. No one could be more competent than the Irken Zim. No one.

Dib glared at Zim, seeing that the Irken was smirking at him. Dib grabbed some of the mush from his plate and began aiming for Zim. Zim soon realized what Dib was doing and began to panic.

Dib charged his arm. "You won't be laughing after this!" And launched the ball of mush at Zim, making direct impact to his disguise's human eye.

Zim fell to the floor as the mush singed his eye, screaming at the burning sensation.

Dib grinned triumphantly. "You'll have to take off part of your disguise now, Zim! You can't handle the pain!"

Zim struggled to get up and wiped most of the mush out of his eye. He slammed his hands on his table and looked at him angrily with an irritated eye. He yelled at him, "what kind of ploy was that Dib-stink?! That wasn't enough to defeat the almighty Zim! No human can tell me what to do! No one!"

Dib slammed his face with his hands. "Aw come on! No one's listening?! What kind of human would say that?!"

Nothing but, "stop making fun of the weird green kid, Dib," and "you're just crazy!" and refusal to listen to him as a response.

Dib sighed exasperatedly and slammed his head on his table.

Gaz chuckled with a raised brow and formed a small smirk. "Weird and strangely funny as ever, huh Zim?"

Zim looked at her in confusion. He caught himself staring at the Gaz-human. He knew she was mocking him in some way, but why was the mocking so… pleasing? Her laugh, voice, and face were supposed to be horrible to his antennas, eyes, and mind! She is a human after all! A horrid, ugly, puny, pathetic, scarily… intriguing human being?

Zim's eye twitched.

Gaz looked up at him from her game and opened an eye. She made a disturbed expression. "Okay. You're surprisingly freaking me out now. Stop staring at me. You'll be in more pain if you don't."

Dib looked up from his faceplant to see Zim frozen in place at his table. Zim's gaze was still fixated on his younger sister. He raised an eyebrow. "What's up with you now?"

Zim started to get nervous. "Eh? Freaking? You? Out? Of course! Freaking! Because I'm intimidating, right? You should feel intimidated, little Gaz!"

Gaz shook her head. "No. You're not. You're just bothering me now. Just stop."

Zim's squeedlyspooch felt fuzzy for some reason. Never in his Irken life had this happened to him before. For a human of all things?! He didn't know how to respond to this gross, warming feeling growing inside of him. How was the Gaz-human doing this to his insides?!

Such authority?!

Such power?!

Such intelligence?!

For a human?!

He wanted the feeling to go away!

Or maybe not?

No he does!

Or not?

Yes!

No?

Yes!

...No?

Zim felt so much built up emotion he never thought he could experience.

There was only one way to let it out.

The Zim way.

His bursting scream filled the whole cafeteria. "AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! What have you done to me?! Zim is not supposed to feel weak for a human! This was all a plan to weaken me! Foolish humans can't defeat the almighty Zim! Stupid huuummmaaanns! AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

And with that a screaming Zim left the Skool cafeteria to hide in the bathroom.

Dib chuckled. "Nice one, Gaz. I knew you were on my side. What did you do?"

Gaz scowled, still looking at her game. He couldn't just tell her that if he was doubting her before. "I didn't do anything. I was just talking to him. And I'm on no one's side."

Dib raised a brow with an unsure look. "Well… Okay? Hopefully you can do it again to scare him. It could help me win against him."

Gaz grunted angrily. "Whatever."

"Oh come on, Gaz. You gotta admit that was funny from Zim." He grinned.

"I guess so." She replied. "I already said so before."

"Oh. Really? Interesting… It seems you catch him off guard. He did say he felt weak. But I didn't plan anything other than throwing food at him and you already said you didn't do much. Maybe that's the case. Weird how he never reacted like that to you before until now."

Gaz shrugged, pretending to not know, but she knew the horrible truth that Zim had admitted to her. She felt too grossed out to admit it.

Dib looked around at the students in the cafeteria. He remembered still having food on his hand from throwing it at Zim. "Huh. I should probably wash my hand. Though, I'm still surprised I didn't start a food fight."

Gaz face palmed. "You idiot."

…

"Food fight!" A student screeched.

Balls of food started being hurled left and right. Many students got barraged and attacked by the thrown food impact.

Dib panicked and got hit with mush on his glasses and fell to the floor.

Gaz barricaded herself with her tray and Dib's tray. She soon sat down on the floor next to their table to prevent food from flying to her face.

Dib sighed. "It seems that I still lost to him even when he's not here."

Gaz smirked. "Seems like it."


	2. Chapter 2 - Love-Pig

Zim arrived to Ms. Bitter's class on time from hiding in the bathroom and immediately sat at his seat. He waited throughout the lunch period and recess period to avoid the Gaz-human.

It was a good thing that Gaz wasn't in the same class as Zim or else he would have thrown the same fit from the cafeteria. Even if she wasn't in the classroom, he still felt uneasy from how he felt in her presence.

He didn't want to admit that it was himself naturally feeling this way, so he was suspicious if Dib or Gaz had done anything to him.

He glared at the Dib-monkey sitting at his assigned seat. He had human slop staining his clothes and head. His slumped posture showed he was drained from the events that happened to him before. After the whole food fight, he had to stay in at recess to help clean the cafeteria.

Surely they did something to make Zim feel that squeamish fuzzy feeling. Well, he for sure knew the Gaz-human did something.

And strangely did nothing suspicious at the same time…

No! She did. She's surely hiding something. There's something about her that allows her to control Zim in a way…

Zim slammed his face on his desk. Why did humans have to be so humany? With their squishy emotions and stuff. They were so confusing to him. Especially the Gaz-human. She was so different from the rest of the humans that she made him feel terrible.

And yet he didn't feel so terrible.

But why was he, an Irken, so capable of experiencing this weird human emotion? He needed to know more. Was the planet's environment and atmosphere getting to him? Was he infected? Was he ill? What other explanation could there be-

Ms. Bitters growled. "No sleeping in class, Zim."

Zim turned his head up and sat up straight. "Zim doesn't need sleep!"

"Good for you," Ms. Bitters responded in her monotone voice. "It seems this entire class has failed on basic human function once again." She glared at all the students covered in cafeteria food. "Not surprising." She grabs a pile of books that were behind her desk. "I suggest reading on pigs to learn more about who you all really are."

Ms. Bitters slithers to each desk and hands each student a book on basic pig information.

Dib grabs a book and weakly places the book down on his desk. "This Skool doesn't surprise me anymore." He sighs. He opens the book and pretends to look through the pages so he can drift off into his own little world. A world where everyone believes him and his studies.

Zim rests his head in his hand as he flips through the pages of the book with his free hand. Each pig photo seeming more disgusting with each page turn.

"Filthy pig beasts. Almost as filthy as worthless humans." He began to say to himself. He would of said they were equally filthy if it weren't for… anyways. "Stupid pigs. Stupid humans. Stupid fuzzy feeling. I will be ruler of this stinking planet." He tries to keep his mind off of thinking about the cause of his fuzzies.

He turns a page. Two older pigs are seen with a small pig.

"Disgusting pig love."

He turns once more. Two people are seen sharing a hot dog.

"That pig probably deserved it."

He looks at the food intently.

"...Yeah, probably."

Zim doesn't turn the page. He wanted his hand to move the page so he wouldn't see the couple anymore, but he wanted to keep observing the scene. He spent a good minute staring at the picture. He placed a hand on the picture looking at it in an entranced state. His expression became somber. He craved this. But he wasn't hungry for food. He was hungry for, "Zim's love-pig… She is worthy of Zim… We can rule… together… Together? Gaz-human? Gaz-human?!"

What was he thinking?! Putting himself in that situation with… with-!

Here comes the fuzzy feeling again.

Zim began to yell once again. "How can this be?! I must conquer the fuzzies! I can't take it anymore! AHHHH!" He slammed his hands against his desk and against the pig book and stretched his legs out. His whole body felt tense.

"Being scared of pigs doesn't excuse you from reading the book," Ms. Bitters called out.

"Zim is not scared of love-pig!" Zim shouted.

Dib sighs. "She didn't say love-pig. She just said pig."

Zim glares at him. "Lies!"

Dib simply rolled his eyes and continued in his preferred little world. Although, he did question why he said love-pig. Why was the term so familiar to him?...

Zim had to wait a few more agonizing minutes with the small daydreams of the Gaz-human that would pop up in his head from the boredom of pig book skimming. Time went by slowly as he shuffled in his seat at the thought about wanting to be in the human's company or not. He needed to know if the emotion would do him more hurt than a fuzzy sensation if it could grow bigger around her presence. The humans could handle the emotion, but he wasn't sure if his body could handle the emotion.

Even if Dib was stuck in his ideal world, he was able to observe Zim's suspiciously erratic behavior. He needed to know what was up with him.

After what seemed like forever, the bell rang to dismiss the Skool classes. Kids swarmed through the doors and through the windows to impatiently leave the building.

Dib called out to Zim before he could exit the classroom. "The book inspired some sort of evil plan for you, didn't it? What are you gonna do with pigs, huh?"

"Those filthy pigs are of no use to Zim!" He glared at him.

"Then what's love-pig, huh?" Dib curiously asked with a raised brow.

Zim's eyes went wide at the sound of that term. "What is this love-pig you speak of?! He yelled quickly before bolting out of the classroom.

Zim ran in panic to the exit doors of the whole Skool shoving a few Skool kids in the process. He opened the two giant doors and checked behind him to see if the Dib-beast was following him. Without looking ahead, he took a quick step outside the building and fell back from bumping into someone in front of him. He looked up to see the towering figure above him.

The hideously alluring short purple spiked hair.

The intimidatingly intriguing scowl from being irked.

The scarily powerful clenched fists from her wonderfully built up anger.

Little Gaz.

She warned through clenched teeth, "watch where you're going, Zim."

No, Zim's love-pig.

Zim panicked once again. A warmth grew inside of him. "Not the fuzzies!" He immediately stood up and ran straight home.

Dib shortly made it outside of the Skool, panting from running to try to catch up with Zim. He stopped next to Gaz. "Darn it! I need to figure out what he's planning! All I know is that he was freaking out over pigs or some love-pig." He ran ahead without Gaz to investigate what Zim was doing or was going to do.

Gaz exasperatedly sighed and walked down the steps of the Skool. "I just want to go home and get more batteries for my Game Slave." She started her walk home. She didn't mind the idea of walking alone so nobody could annoy her.

In between her walk, all she wanted to think about was getting home and doing things she wanted to do, but she didn't think Dib's last words before zooming off would stick in her mind.

Gaz rose a brow. "Pigs?" She clenched her teeth. "...Love-pig?" Her clenched fists shook in anger. She found it amusing that pigs were enough to psych Zim out with how superior he proves himself out to be. Even if he wasn't such a threat to Earth, she could relate with the power and authority he tried to show to humans with his attitude. While he often failed, he did have his moments…

Gaz shook her head. "This is stupid." She hated how he used the term 'love-pig' as a sign of endearment.

Gaz growled. She hated how she hates his term less than how she thought she would.

His attitude, voice, laughter. They were all annoying.

Yet, they surprisingly weren't that annoying.

Her eyes opened wide. An eye twitched. She stomped on the floor as she walked. "... Love is stupid!"

She rose a shaky, clenched fist. "Curse you Dib for leaving me alone with these thoughts and not your annoying paranormal studies for once. Curse you Zim for ever wanting to take over this stupid planet. I wouldn't be having these thoughts or emotions about anybody if you never appeared in our lives. I just want to be alone and enjoy what I want to do. Curse you gross, warm human emotion. Curse you Zim! CURSE YOU!"

She angrily bolted to her home wanting to distract herself in her room with her video games.

**A/N: Oh my. Frustration on both sides haha.**

**I really appreciate people following, reviewing, and favoriting. It's a joy to see!**

**I'm beginning to feel the fuzzies like Zim, woops.**

**Until the next!**


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